Tuesday, July 26, 2011

CJ (R) Sajjad Ali Shah, General (R) Jahangir Karamat & Judiciary.

KARACHI: PML-N Chief Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that it was being proven that the government is a threat for democracy adding that members in treasury benches should came out against the government. Talking in a Geo News program ‘Aaj Kamran Khan kay sath’, PML-N Chief said that government did not learn any lesson from the past mistakes. He said that verdicts of Supreme Court are not being implemented and the government did not recognise the restoration of independent judiciary. He said that ministers were also involved in corruption cases and the situation of country was moving towards anarchy. Looting hajj pilgrims is the act of knocking the wrath of God while the government were being advised to ignore courts’ orders, Nawaz added. REFERENCE: Govt a threat for democracy, says Nawaz http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=19473&title=Govt-a-threat-for-democracy,-says-Nawaz

The Lahore High Court accepts (Feb 9, 1998) the constitutional petition filed by Rafiq Tarar against his disqualification by the (former) Acting CEC and declared him qualified to contest for and hold the office of President. The acting CEC, Justice Mukhtar Ahmed Junejo of the Supreme Court, had found Mr Tarar, a former Supreme Court Judge, guilty of propagating views prejudicial to the integrity and independence of the judiciary at the time of his nomination as a presidential candidate under Article 63(G) of the Constitution and debarred him from the December, 1997 contest. [Courtesy: Excerpts from ISLAMIC PAKISTAN: ILLUSIONS & REALITY By Abdus Sattar Ghazali] - ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Mukhtar Junejo on Thursday rejected the nomination papers of PML presidential candidate Justice Rafiq Tarar for making derogatory remarks against judiciary. The acting CEC rejected the nomination papers of Mr Tarar under Article 63 (g) of the Constitution and conveyed the decision to Senator Anwar Bhinder, counsel for Mr Tarar. Mr Tarar was not present when his nomination papers were rejected, however, his covering candidate Capt (retd) Halim Siddique and several other members of the ruling party were there. The acting CEC accepted nomination papers of six other candidates, including Capt Halim Siddique, Aftab Shahban Mirani, Senator Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani, a JUI MNA. In a seven-page order released later Justice Junejo said: “I am of the view that case of Mr Tarar is covered by sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of Article 63 of the Constitution and since he cannot be elected as member of parliament, hence in terms of Article 41(2) of the Constitution of Pakistan, he cannot be elected as president of Pakistan. I therefore, reject his nomination papers.” Article 63 (1)(g) reads: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament), if he is propagating any opinion, or acting in any manner, prejudicial to to the ideology of Pakistan, or the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan, or morality, or the maintenance of public order, or the integrity or independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary or the Armed Forces of Pakistan.” Parliamentary Secretary for Law Syed Zafar Ali Shah, who termed the order of the acting CEC unconstitutional and illegal, said the decision would be challenged in the court through a writ petition. REFERENCE: Six papers accepted CEC rejects Tarar’s nomination Bureau Report DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending: 20 December 1997 Issue : 03/51 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/20Dec97.htmlWrong choice, Mr Prime Minister M.P. Bhandara DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending:20 December 1997 Issue : 03/51 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/20Dec97.html#wron

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 28: Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah requested the president to take steps to post army or paramilitary soldiers in the Supreme Court building, and at the residences of the chief justice and other judges hearing the contempt case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In his letter Justice Sajjad Ali Shah narrated the incidents which took place in the court on Thursday and Friday. He stated that during the hearing of the contempt case against the prime minister and others, certain advocates stooped to rowdiness. He said some of the intruders were overheard saying that they wanted to take the CJ hostage. The case was adjourned and the judges were taken to the chamber of the chief justice under police escort. He said after Thursday's rowdy scenes in the court room, he had directed the registrar to issue passes only to people concerned as usually government supporters jam-packed the court. The chief justice further said several people had informed him over telephone that a BBC report about the attack showed policemen doing nothing to stop the mob. He said when court officials present at the gate asked the police as to why they were not preventing the crowd from entering the premises, they replied that since most of the protesters were government supporters, they were helpless. Justice Sajjad said films were available with court officials to show how big the crowds were and how they broke into the court room. He further said court officials told him that when the mob was dispersing, they heard announcements that arrangements had been made for lunch at the Punjab House. REFERENCE: Sajjad demands army protection for judges Staff Correspondent DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending: 29 November, 1997 Issue : 03/48 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/29Nov97.html#sajj

QUETTA, Nov. 26: A division bench of the Supreme Court held the appointment of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah in abeyance till further orders and restrained him from performing judicial and administrative functions. The Quetta bench of the apex court comprising Justice Irshad Hassan Khan and Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan passed a short order, as an interim relief, on a constitutional petition filed by Malik Asad Ali, a resident of Quetta, challenging the appointment of the chief justice. The bench also held in abeyance the operation of the notification of June 5, 1994 issued by the president appointing Justice Sajjad Ali Shah as the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The bench admitted the petition and fixed it for regular hearing on Nov. 28. It issued notices to all the respondents - the federation of Pakistan through secretary law, justice and parliamentary affairs, the President of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The apex court bench issued notice to the Attorney-General for Pakistan as the matter involved interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution. REFERENCE: SC's Quetta bench suspends CJ Saleem Shahid DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 29 November, 1997 Issue : 03/48 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/29Nov97.html#scsq

What was Leghari’s successor in office, Rafiq Tarar, doing in Quetta on the day the order suspending Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was handed down by the Quetta Bench of the Supreme Court? Why did Tarar and two others fly to Quetta in a special plane on that disastrous day? Leghari is right. Questions are being asked. Why were the police at the Quetta airport ordered not to manifest his arrival (which instructions they in fact manifested)? Where did Tarar stay on the night of November 26 (his departure on November 27 having been manifested by the airport police)? What reward was he given for his day’s efforts? Why, on January 20, was a story leaked by the government to the press about the obstruction of justice early in 1997 in an alleged rape case involving a servant in the then Justice Ajmal Mian’s Karachi house when he, as CJ, was presiding over the bench hearing contempt of court cases against Nawaz Sharif and others? Why were stories leaked about the foreign sholarship sponsored by the government to the wife of the good J-1 Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui? Why is the Muslim League inner circle boasting that the ‘package’ . REFERENCES: The second Tumandar Ardeshir Cowasjee Week Ending : 28 February 1998 Issue : 04/09 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/28Feb98.html

QUETTA, Nov. 27: The Quetta bench of the Supreme Court has held that the impugned executive order of the Chief Justice is nullity and is to be ignored. The order was passed by a three member bench comprising Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice Irshad Hasan Khan and Justice Khalilur Rehman on a petition filed by Mrs. Ashraf Abbas Advocate on Record late on Wednesday evening. The court further said that the "order passed by a bench of two judges of this court at Quetta on Nov. 26, in C.P. No. 248-Q of 1997 still holds the field and is hereby reiterated and confirmed." Mr. Mohammad Aslam Chishti who is Advocate on Record in Malik Asad Ali's case in which the Quetta bench of Supreme Court had suspended the Chief Justice of Pakistan on Wednesday appeared on behalf of the petitioner. ORDER RULED OUT: The bench also over-ruled the executive order of Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah regarding not fixing the cases before it. When the proceedings of the court started, it was pointed out to the bench that a fax has been received from Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah with the direction to the Assistant Registrar, Quetta Registry that no case should be fixed for hearing before the said bench until further orders. One of the senior judge observed that it is "misconduct on the part of Chief Justice as none of the Supreme Court judge can be restrained from the work on executive order and said that judicial order had already suspended the Chief Justice to perform his duties as Chief Justice."

The full bench after ignoring the orders of the Chief Justice disposed off 10 cases. These cases were fixed before the bench by Advocate General Balochistan and counsels of different petitioners. ASAD CASE: The Quetta bench of the Supreme Court will hear the petition of Malik Asad Ali on Friday in which he challenged the appointment of the Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah as Chief Justice of Pakistan. The division bench of the Supreme Court had already admitted the petition for regular hearing suspending the notification about the appointment of Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah issued by the President on 5 June, 1994. The court had also ordered the Chief Justice of Pakistan that he should not perform his judicial and administrative duties as Chief Justice till the decision of the said bench regarding the petition. Notices in this regard had been issued to Attorney General, Deputy Attorney general and others. REFERENCE: Quetta bench overrules CJ's order Staff Correspondent DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending: 29 November, 1997 Issue : 03/48 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/29Nov97.html#quet

Then Abbaji stepped in, and within the space of one minute settled everything. Cut the cackle and forget about the ‘smaller’ provinces. Let’s keep it all in the family and in Punjab. Select my friend and legal adviser, Rafiq Tarar, whose wit and wisdom I share, and with whom I often sup late into the night, exchanging sick Sikh jokes from our vast reservoirs. He is, and will prove to be, perfect. What is good for the Sharifs, is good for the party, and is good for the nation. Soon, with God’s blessings, we will have a Sharif nominee at the head of the Supreme Court and at the head of our powerful army. ‘Der Fuhrer’ had spoken. Without further ado, without consulting his ruling party members, or the leaders of the coalition parties, Nawaz Sharif nominated Tarar. Thought-broadcaster and ‘media developer’ Mushahid Hussain was ordered to tailor Tarar to fit the slot, and vice versa. Mushahid trumpeted: Tarar is a moderate Muslim, a clean, devout, upright man and, contrary to what is said, is not a misogynist. He has been cleared by the agencies (who codified him in the records sent to those prosecuting Benazir’s Bhutto government’s dismissal as DW1 — Dari Wallah 1). He is a son of the soil, officially born in Pirkhot, District Gujranwala, on November 2, 1929, educated in Gujranwala and Lahore. Gujranwala is his oyster. It was there he grew his formal beard and in 1951 launched himself as a pleader.

He moved up to become advocate of the high court, to additional district and sessions judge, to district and sessions judge, and was elevated to the bench of the Lahore High Court in 1974, in the good old days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP. In 1989, in the equally good old days of Zia, he became chief justice of that court, moving up to the Supreme Court in 1991, from where he retired in 1994. His brilliance on the bench of the Supreme Court has beEn immortalized. During the three years he sat there, one sole judgment authored by the Honourable Justice Tarar was recorded in a PLD — his concurring judgment in the case of the 1993 dissolution of the National Assembly when the presidential Dissolution order was struck down and the government of Nawaz Sharif restored.

Amongst his friends who share his thoughts and beliefs and over whom he wields considerable influence are Justice Khalilur Rahman (codified as DW2), a signatory to the November 1997 order of the Quetta bench of the Supreme Court which sparked off the sorry disintegration process; Afzal Lone, a benefactor of the Ittefaq empire, rewarded with a Senate seat, who is inevitably to be found lurking in the prime minister’s secretariat, and Major General Javed Nasir (DW3), Nawaz Sharif’s former chief of the ISI and of the ‘Afghan misadventure’.

Tarar’s nomination was filed on December 16, together with that of his covering candidates Captain Haleem Siddiqi and Khwaja Qutubuddin. (It is somewhat of a disgrace that a master mariner should have allowed his name to be included amongst the spineless.) Tarar’s nomination was rejected on December 18 by Justice of the Supreme Court Mukhtar Ahmad Junejo, who also holds the post of Acting Chief Election Commissioner. Junejo, in this case, proved himself to be as strong as Seshan.

Can we remove Junejo, was Nawaz Sharif’s first Gawalmandi reaction. Risky, he was told. Then file a petition against Junejo’s order in the Lahore High Court and have the order suspended. Suitable counsel were hurriedly contacted, and it goes to the credit of the bar that not one of the top constitutional lawyers was willing to accept Tarar’s brief. Ejaz Batalvi, expert criminal lawyer, was roped in. Justice Qayyum admitted the petition on December 19 and suspended Junejo’s order, allowing Tarar to “participate in the election provisionally subject to further orders”. A larger bench will hear the petition on the 23rd.

My renowned constitutional expert (who for his own good explicitly asked me not to name him) maintains that Tarar may sail through the Lahore High Court. But, in the Supreme Court, it may, just may, be a different kettle of fish. Passing muster there will not be that simple. The irony is that the order of Acting CEC Mukhtar Junejo will be defended by Attorney General Chaudhry Farooq, who, though technically the first law officer of the land representing the people still acts as if he were the personal hired lawyer of Ittefaq and Nawaz Sharif. As for the president of the republic, with the powers now left to him in the Constitution, all he can depend upon is his moral authority and his presentability to the world. Tarar, unfortunately, possesses neither. To quote from the ‘Comment’ of man-of-integrity Kunwar Idris, published in this newspaper on December 20 :

“Also casting a dark shadow on him is the referendum of December 1984 when, as a member of Zia’s Election Commission, he solemnly assured the people that 55 per cent and not just five per cent of the electorate had turned out to confer legitimacy on Zia’s dictatorial rule. Mr Tarar also has to dispel the widely insinuated impression that he was involved in the ‘Quetta Shuttle’ which divided the Supreme Court and wrote the saddest chapter in Pakistan’s constitutional history.”

The task before the present de facto chief custodian of the Supreme Court, the honourable J-1, Justice Ajmal Mian, is onerous indeed. Before he can reform and unite his ‘farishtas’ (as the judges of the SC are affectionately known) he has to clean up the paradise over which they preside. The dignity and honour of the court remain desecrated and dented by the mob attack upon it organized by the ruling party. The court must be cleansed and reconsecrated, the sponsors and their stormers punished for committing a criminal act in the face of the court. Another task awaiting Justice Mian is the reining in of the parallel judiciary incorporated in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 (a Lone-Tarar creation). Also (important and urgent) he must demolish the formation of a squad of honorary magistrates planned to be recruited in Punjab from the ranks of party bosses of the Muslim League. Following in his master’s footsteps, Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat is said to have thought up this brilliant fascistic move. REFERENCE: Fascism on the march – III Also see [Facism I] [Fascism II] Ardeshir Cowasjee Week Ending:27 December 1997 Issue:03/52 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1997/27Dec97.html

OUR two alternating juvenile prime ministers and opposition leaders are made of the same stuff. They care not for our Constitution; they make no effort to conform to it; they amend it to suit their own purposes. They have no regard for our laws, which they chop and change at will. When a chief justice asserts the independence of the judiciary, he is deemed to be 'non- cooperative' and is removed by machinations defying law. Had the seven honourable judges of the Supreme Court now hearing the cases against this prime minister and his minions been able to hear the

testimony of former president Farooq Leghari (who suffered both juveniles), he would have sworn on oath that neither is capable of tolerating, or surviving, an independent judiciary. He would have reaffirmed his public statements of December 2, 1997 when he announced his resignation (and might even have revealed other issues such as Tarar's flight to Quetta on November 26, 1997). He would have substantiated his affirmations with details of past shameful events, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan might just have found the present and former heads of government guilty as charged. Shortly after the March 20, 1996, judgment was announced by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto went to President Leghari and asked him to denotify the Chief Justice. Why? Because his judgment, repugnant to her selfish interests, would stand in her way. Impossible, he told her, and advised her not to take on the judiciary in a battle she was bound to lose. REFERENCE: Hear no evil Ardeshir Cowasjee DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 7 March 1998 Issue : 04/10 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/07Mar98.html

ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: President Rafiq Tarar has pardoned former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s 25-year jail sentence but exiled the former prime minister and his family, a government announcement said in the wee hours of Sunday. “On the advice of the chief executive, the president of Pakistan, according to law has pardoned Nawaz Sharif’s remaining jail sentence while the rest of the punishment awarded by the honourable courts, which includes fine, forfeiture of property and disqualification from public office would remain in place,” the announcement said. “Nawaz Sharif and family have been exiled to Saudi Arabia.

This decision has been taken in the best interest of the country and the people of Pakistan,” it said. The former prime minister was awarded 14 years’ Imprisonment on corruption charges, fined Rs20 million and disqualified from contesting election for 21 years. Mr Sharif, who was removed by the army in a bloodless coup, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of hijacking the plane in which General Pervez Musharraf was travelling. He had appealed in the high court, which had rejected the plea. He was fined Rs500,000 and forfeiture of property worth Rs500 million. The official announcement said that Nawaz Sharif and his family had been appealing to the chief executive and the president of Pakistan requesting clemency. They had also filed a petition requesting for waiver of punishment awarded by the Sindh High Court and the accountability court in the helicopter case. “Nawaz Sharif and his family had pleaded his falling health and need of specialist medical care urgently requesting that he may be allowed to proceed abroad for treatment. The Sharif family had also submitted that they be allowed to accompany him,” the announcement said.

SAUDI ROLE: Indirectly admitting that the deal had been brokered by Saudi Arabia, the announcement said that recently, Pakistan’s closest friend Saudi Arabia offered the Government of Pakistan to accept the Sharif family for medical treatment on humanitarian grounds if exiled to their country. Sources said that Saudi defence minister and former intelligence chief Prince Turki Al Faisal, arrived in Islamabad “this morning on a special plane and held detailed talks with the military government officials as well as with Begum Kulsoom Nawaz at the residence of Saudi ambassador to Pakistan. The Saudi prince, according to Raja Zafarul Haq, also met Nawaz Sharif in Attock jail this afternoon along with Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, to give final touches to the deal. Nawaz Sharif, according to latest reports, has been brought from Attock Fort and admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi.

Sources in the Pakistan Muslim League claimed that Nawaz Sharif was averse to leaving the country but his son Hasan Nawaz, who is now in London, has played a decisive role in convincing his father to accept the deal. These sources said that under the deal, Nawaz Sharif and his family would not return to Pakistan for 10 years. The deal has fuelled speculations about the restoration of the suspended assemblies. However, some political analysts believe that an interim political structure will be established in the country and the army will step down after ensuring “due share” in the new political structure. REFERENCE: President pardons Nawaz; entire Sharif family exiled Nasir Malick and Faraz Hashmi Week Ending : 16 December 2000 Issue : 06/48 DAWN WIRE SERVICE http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/2000/dec1600.html

The Lahore High Court accepted, on Feb. 9 1998, the constitutional petition filed by Rafiq Tarar against his disqualification by the (former) Acting CEC and declared him qualified to contest for and hold the office of President. The acting CEC, Justice Mukhtar Ahmed Junejo of the Supreme Court, had found Tarar, a former Supreme Court Judge, guilty of propagating views prejudicial to the integrity and independence of the judiciary at the time of his nomination as a presidential candidate under Article 63(G) of the Constitution and debarred him from the December, 1997 contest.

The short verbal order did not deal with the question of fact involved in the case - whether Tarar in his interview of the weekly Takbir of June 27, 1996, and statement to the daily Jang, Rawalpindi, of Dec 4, 1997, propagated views prejudicial to the judiciary. Neither before the acting CEC nor in the LHC did Tarar or his counsel categorically denied the allegedly contemptuous statements in their entirety.

Tarar's counsel, Barrister Ijaz Hussein Batalvi told the LHC that the interview carried by Takbeer did not fully convey the views of Tarar. In any case, Tarar was elected senator after the interview and was not debarred from the senatorial contest. The Jang interview did not refer to any judge as no judge left in disgrace on Dec 2. Besides, a penal action could not be based on newspaper reports. Again, a presidential candidate who is also a sitting member of parliament cannot be disqualified under Article 63. Article 41(2) says that a candidate should be qualified to be elected a member of parliament under Article 62 and disqualification under Article 63 cannot be read into it. Excerpts from ISLAMIC PAKISTAN: ILLUSIONS & REALITY By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Eighteen months later, on October 16, 1997, shortly after the then Chief Justice had nominated five High Court judges for elevation to the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went to Leghari, taking with him as support and as his voice Leghari's erstwhile friend, Punjab Governor Barrister Shahid Hamid. They asked him to denotify the same Chief Justice, giving as an excuse their fear that with the five judges elevated, he may shoot down their Anti-Terrorism Act. Nawaz had the denotification document ready for the President's signature in his pocket. Once again, Leghari had to refuse. Nawaz Sharif went a step further and asked him to send to the Supreme Judicial Council a reference against Sajjad Ali Shah on the grounds that his appointment was unconstitutional and that he was guilty of misconduct. There was no way, under the Constitution, that Leghari could agree to this. Nawaz Sharif then put on a brave face and announced that all was not lost as they had "worked on the Judges." When Leghari pressed them to give the true reason, they admitted that it was Nawaz Sharif's fear that Sajjad Ali Shah, with the support of those elevated, might well disqualify him in the cases filed against him. And, besides, it suited Nawaz to have two of the five remain where they were. REFERENCE: Hear no evil Ardeshir Cowasjee DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 7 March 1998 Issue : 04/10 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/07Mar98.html

At around 0130 hours on November 27, following the unprecedented unconstitutional suspension of Sajjad Ali Shah (Chief Justice of Pakistan for almost four years) by the Quetta Bench of the Supreme Court in the afternoon of the 26th, Nawaz Sharif arrived at the Aiwan to meet Leghari, bringing with him Speaker Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro, Senate Chairman Wasim Sajjad, Law Minister Khalid Anwer, COAS General Jehangir Karamat and DG-ISI Lt. General Rana. For four hours they tried to pressure him into swearing-in as Chief Justice the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, Ajmal Mian. The Law Minister trotted out at length various precedents to support the action of the Quetta Bench, in response to which Leghari informed him that during the past three months it was his advice that had brought Nawaz to his present predicament. Leghari informed them that he would not sign Sajjad Ali Shah's denotification, that he would rather resign and hand over to Wasim Sajjad who, as Acting President, would have no moral compunctions to swiftly signing on the dotted line. They begged him not to resign, quite ignoring the fact that for the past many days Nawaz Sharif, Illahi Bakhsh and Wasim had been frantically busy trying to move an impeachment motion against Leghari. REFERENCE: Hear no evil Ardeshir Cowasjee DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 7 March 1998 Issue : 04/10 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/07Mar98.html

Five days later Leghari did resign rather than uphold Sajjad Ali Shah's unconstitutional removal. In his December 2 resignation speech (recorded by his men) to an audience which included some 200 international and national media people, he spoke at length on the crisis engineered by Nawaz Sharif, intent upon his confrontation with the Chief Justice, loathe to make any attempt to resolve it. He spoke of the cost to the nation in economic terms of the two-month paralysis of the government, a cost of some Rs.1 billion per day, and of the cost in other intangible terms - the negation of the rule of law, the subjugation of the judiciary, the damage done to the nation's institutions and morale. He spoke of the engineered disruption of the Supreme Court, of government pressure exerted upon the judges of the Court in order to deliberately and with mala fide intentions fuel the confrontation between the executive and the judiciary. He spoke of how the prime minister's parliamentarians in open court had insulted the chief justice, of how the ruling party had sent in "goons and militants and parliamentarians to assault the Supreme Court, to jump over fences, to break through doors, to go through corridors waving flags, chanting, dancing and hurling abuses at the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Supreme Court of Pakistan." REFERENCE: Hear no evil Ardeshir Cowasjee DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 7 March 1998 Issue : 04/10 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/07Mar98.html

He spoke of how he had done his best to dissuade Nawaz Sharif from his tussle, to instead concentrate on the major issues confronting the nation, such as poverty, illiteracy, the backwardness of its women, its health, the need for social reforms, the need for modern technology, the need to improve science and agriculture through research. He spoke of how he had begged Nawaz Sharif to back down, to uphold rather than destroy the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, to not damage irreparably the institutions of the state. He spoke of how Nawaz Sharif had thrice offered him a second term in return for his 'cooperation' and how thrice he had refused. On February 24, 1998, an application under Order V Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980, was filed by Advocate Muhammad Ikram Choudhary, petitioner in the contempt case against Nawaz Sharif and others now being heard in the Supreme Court, and his Advocate on Record, M A Zaidi. The application pleaded:

"That Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee has written an article in Dawn of Karachi, on Sunday the 22nd of February 1998, titled 'The second Tumandar' relating to alleged 'subjugation and politicising of the judiciary,' as stated by Mr Farooq Leghari, the ex-president of Pakistan, and so stated in the above article. "That Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee ... has already sent the speech on video cassette to the Resgistrar S.C. Islamabad. "That Mr Leghari, as per Ardeshir Cowasjee, is ready to make a statement on oath in the learned court for the purposes of analysis of the relevant facts and events involved in this case and to do so in the interests of justice. "That the petitioner is placing on record the video cassette containing the speech of Mr Leghari and other things stated above and requests for an appropriate order".

The application came up the next day before seven judges. They ordered:

"In our view, Mr Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari's the then proposed speech which is contained in the video referred to in the application cannot be taken by this Court as a piece of evidence on the controversy in issue. The application is dismissed."

The video cassette of the speech submitted to the Court is not the recording of " Mr Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari's the then proposed speech". It is the recording of the speech actually made by President Leghari at the Aiwan-e-Sadar on December 2, 1997. Excerpts from this speech were broadcast on international television channels on December 2 and December 3, but no part of it was allowed to be broadcast by the government-controlled PTV. Excerpts were also reported in the national and international press of December 3. REFERENCE: Hear no evil Ardeshir Cowasjee DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 7 March 1998 Issue : 04/10 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1998/07Mar98.html